Sustaining industrial innovation

Technological innovations that have reduced the costs of transport and communications, together with the dismantling of trade barriers over the last decade of the 20th century, led to accelerated growth in global trade. In 2000, world trade volumes increased by around 12.5 percent, the highest rate of growth since before the first oil shock of the 1970s. Most developed countries and many developing countries boosted export and GDP growth over the 1990s. However, the world's poorest countries, especially those torn by conflict in Africa, have not kept pace and, in fact, economic growth is gradually falling.